New restaurant on menu for Tinley Metra station

January 23, 2013|By Andy Grimm | Tribune reporter

Starting Monday, commuters at the 80th Avenue Metra station in Tinley Park will get a taste of one of the south suburbs most popular restaurants.

Village officials Tuesday voted to award a five-year license to run the restaurant inside the $12 million station to the owners of Parmesans Wood Stone Pizza, an upscale pizza and Italian restaurant that has operated in neighboring Frankfort since 2004.

Parmesans owners Michael and Mary Ann Papandrea brought a tray of cannolis and other pastries to a meeting of the Finance and Economic Development Committee on Tuesday to discuss plans for the operation. The couple said Parmesans at the Station will open at 5 a.m. — after starting baking fresh bread and pastries at 2 a.m. — and within three months hope to remain open as late as 10 p.m. They also hope commuters will make use use of Parmesans smartphone app, which allows to order a pizza as they leave work in Chicago and pick it up when they arrive at the station.

“This is such a perfect place to grow the concept,” Michael Papandrea told committee members as he sat behind a tray of cannolis and other pastries.

The license deal is a final touch on the station, an $11.7 million project that opened in October and had struggled to find a vendor to operate inside the station. The owners of Diana’s Kitchen, a Tinley Park diner, have operated the kitchen since station opened to commuters in October, under a 90-day deal with the village. Diana’s Kitchen and Odyssey Country Club also submitted plans to the village to operate in the space.

The deal requires Parmesans to pay $1,100 monthly as well as a 2 percent share of the first $400,000 in gross sales and 2.5 percent on all sales thereafter.

Parmesans will not be the only new dining option in the village. Committee members also signed off on tax breaks requested by developers of a new Golden Corral restaurant that will open as soon as July in front of the Menards store on 159th Street and for an “Asian fusion” restaurant run by the owners of Calumet City’s Siam Marina that will open at the former Casto’s restaurant.